Zain, Huawei to launch Joint Innovation Center in Kuwait

Last updated: Wednesday, February 27, 2013 3:02 PM

Omar Al Omar, CEO of Zain Kuwait, Hani El-Kukhun, COO of Zain Kuwait, Shafeeq Omar, CCO of Zain Kuwait as well as Shi Yaohong, President of Huawei Middle East, Pan En, GM of Huawei Kuwait, and Mohamad Sharara, Head of Zain Key Account at Huawei, during the signing of MOU at the Mobile World Congress 2013 being held in Barcelona, Spain.

BARCELONA – Zain Kuwait, the leading telecommunications company in Kuwait, and Huawei, a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, have announced plans to launch a first-of-its-kind Joint Innovation Center which will serve as a research hub for the advancement of Long-Term Evolution (LTE) mobile broadband technologies and associated LTE applications for Zain ’s mobile customers in Kuwait and across the region.

The new Joint Innovation Center will ultimately support Zain in enhancing its service offerings while realizing additional revenue streams through the advancement of its LTE network capabilities. Both Zain and Huawei will be investing capital in the construction of the Center with the two companies also bringing together an elite team of global experts, engineers and other human resources to lead the Center’s work.

The two companies signed a MoU outlining their ambitions for the Joint Innovation Center during a ceremony at this week’s Mobile World Congress 2013 being held in Barcelona, Spain. In attendance at the signing ceremony was Omar Al Omar, CEO of Zain Kuwait and Hani El-Kukhun, COO of Zain Kuwait, Shafeeq Omar, CCO of Zain Kuwait as well as Shi Yaohong, President of Huawei Middle East, Pan En, GM of Huawei Kuwait, and Mohamad Sharara, Head of Zain Key Account at Huawei.

Al Omar said: "Zain prides itself for being the only telecommunications company in Kuwait that offers its customers various telecommunication solutions while providing the best mobile services experience in town. We are aware that the competition for quality Internet services is increasing, and by partnering with a leading global ICT solutions provider such as Huawei to launch the first Joint Innovation Center, we are reassuring our utmost concern in offering latest technologies in Kuwait. The center aims at enhancing the overall LTE experience throughout Zain ’s Middle East networks, allowing customers to browse the Internet through their smartphones faster than before. Zain looks very positively on collaborations with successful outcome like Huawei and plans to pursue further partnerships to ensure that its customers receive the best services."

Among the goals for the new Joint Innovation Center will be the testing of new LTE-compatible services and applications, as well as the development of sophisticated processes that can be used to measure subscribers’ quality of service and perform more robust customer-experience analysis.

To date, Huawei has launched more than 28 joint innovation centers worldwide in addition to 16 global research and development (R&D) centers.
Huawei annually invests an average over 10 percent of its total annual sales revenues into R&D, with approximately 70,000 of its more than 150,000 employees worldwide currently engaged in R&D activities.

"As a provider of the fastest mobile broadband services to customers across Kuwait, Zain has succeeded in evolving various generations of world-class technologies in order to provide its customers today with an expansive coverage network and high-speed LTE access," said Yaohong during the MoU signing ceremony. "Huawei is honored to have forged a long-term strategic partnership with Zain in the field of mobile broadband - both in Kuwait and across the Middle East region. Based on a mutual dedication to addressing customer needs, we are confident that this latest Joint Innovation Center will help bring the world’s most advanced telecom services and applications to more people anytime, anywhere."

Zain had initially partnered with Huawei in launching LTE services in Kuwait under the banner "Wiyana Connect 4G LTE" in November 2012. Zain and Huawei expanded their LTE partnership after the successful deployment of earlier 2G & 3G networks in the country.

Zain’s current nationwide LTE network provides customers in Kuwait with the fastest mobile Internet speeds in the country, enabling a number of high-performance mobile applications and multimedia services including video conferencing, high-definition content transmissions, high-speed video downloads, and social networking platforms. — SG